Iran discovers new oil fields

Iran has discovered new oil fields near the Iraq and Turkmenistan borders, but with Western sanctions hitting the Islamic Republic's ability to export, will Tehran be able to exploit the new discoveries?

Iran’s Minister of Oil[2] says that the Ministry has discovered new oil and gas fields on Iran’s borders with Iraq and Turkmenistan.

Since last year, more than 2b barrels of oil in place have been discovered. In the sidelines of the Conference on Iran Industrial Automation[3], Rostam Qasemi provided comments on new oil and gas discoveries in Iran and said “recent explorations in Iran have found new oil and gas reserves on borders with Turkmenistan and Iraq.” He stated that in present circumstances, improvement of explorative and mining activities in borders and shared oil and gas fields is a priority for oil industry, and added that present explorations are under way in these areas.

This Cabinet member provided details of the newly-discovered reserves in north-eastern Iran as “natural gas volume in this field is massive and considerable. But discovery operations of seismography and mining of new wells should be completed for a near exact numerical amount of the discovered gas reserves.” Pointing to the establishment of common oil commissions between Iran and Iraq, Qasemi said that “given the new oil discoveries on Iraq borders negotiations with the neighboring country will be held.”

The Oil Minister predicted natural gas reserves in the new oil field[4] discovered on Iran-Iraq border as well. “Every year new discoveries are made in the country. Based on estimations, since last year, more than 2b barrels of oil in place have been discovered across the country,” he asserted.